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Here's the crucial flaw in right-wing media's latest attempt to whitewash Trump’s role in Capitol riots
January 28, 2021
Donald Trump's allies are working overtime to come up with a range of defenses that shield him from responsibility for the violence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. According to The Daily Beast, one line of defense being floated by pro-Trump cable networks is the notion that it was impossible for the first wave of rioters to hear Trump's speech on the White House Ellipse in person because they started storming the Capitol before he was finished speaking.
It's a claim that completely ignores the reality of cellphones that can livestream events as they happen.
<p>"Despite the fact that internet-connected phones have existed for nearly two decades, the theory that only people who saw Trump speak in person could have been incited by his remarks has proved to be a hit in right-wing media," writes the Daily Beast's Will Sommer. "Tweets obsessing over the timeline of the riot, which started shortly before Trump finished speaking, have gone viral in an attempt to prove that Trump couldn't have been involved in a riot that he promoted and was carried out by his supporters."</p><p>Sommer writes that a Daily Beast reporter witnessed people listening to Trump's speech on a speaker, proving that protesters could have listened to his words as they moved on the Capitol.</p><p>Still, pro-Trump outlets are trying to get their viewers to believe that Trump's speech on Jan. 6 and the riot were two completely disconnected events.</p><p>"Despite whatever airs on Newsmax or OAN, the alleged rioters themselves have identified Trump as their inspiration," writes Sommer. "Jacob Chansley, the 'Q Shaman' pictured breaking into the Capitol in horns and animal skins, told the FBI that he came to Washington at Trump's request."</p><p>Read his full analysis over at the <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-allies-new-riot-defense-banks-on-people-not-understanding-how-cellphones-work?ref=home" target="_blank">Daily Beast</a>.</p>
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Fired Fox News editor: 'I became a target of murderous rage' from Trump fans after Arizona Biden call
January 28, 2021
Former Fox News political editor Chris Stirewalt has revealed that he became the target of "murderous rage" from supporters of former President Donald Trump after he correctly called the 2020 presidential election in Arizona for President Joe Biden.
In an editorial published for the Los Angeles Times, Stirewalt decried the way that partisan media had become a tool solely to feed viewers pleasing information while shielding them from inconvenient realities.
<p>"Having been cosseted by self-validating coverage for so long, many Americans now consider any news that might suggest that they are in error or that their side has been defeated as an attack on them personally," wrote Stirewalt, who was fired from Fox News shortly after the end of the 2020 election. "The lie that Trump won the 2020 election wasn't nearly as much aimed at the opposing party as it was at the news outlets that stated the obvious, incontrovertible fact."</p><p>Stirewalt also discussed the toll this took on him personally.</p><p>"When I defended the call for Biden in the Arizona election, I became a target of murderous rage from consumers who were furious at not having their views confirmed," he wrote. </p><p>He concluded by arguing that this kind of news consumption was what led to the January 6th riots in which "a mob of enthusiastic ignoramuses" attacked the United States Capitol building.</p>
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Military vets started plotting violent insurrection within days of Trump's election loss: Indictments
January 28, 2021
Some military veterans began recruitment efforts within days of the election to challenge the congressional certification of Joe Biden's victory, according to prosecutors.
Indictments against a pair of Ohio militia members and a Virginia man show some of former president Donald Trump's supporters recruited, trained and transported militants to Washington, D.C, to disrupt the joint session of Congress and overturn Biden's win, reported the Washington Post.
<p>A four-count indictment accuses three military veterans -- 38-year-old Jessica Marie Watkins and 50-year-old Donovan Ray Crowl, both of Woodstock, Ohio, and 66-year-old Thomas Caldwell, of Berryville, Virginia -- of conspiring to obstruct Congress and other counts punishable up to 20 years in prison.</p><p>Prosecutors say Caldwell appears to have ties to the <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/oath-keeper/" target="_blank">anti-government Oath Keepers organization</a>, although his attorney denies he's a member, and accused him and Watkins of contacting recruits Nov. 9, two days after Biden was projected as the election winner, and holding "basic training" near Columbus, Ohio, to get them "fighting fit by inauguration."</p><p>The newly unsealed indictment also alleges Watkins took part in an encrypted "leadership only" call to coordinate the violent action, and that Caldwell arranged with someone to bring weapons and at least 40 people from North Carolina ahead of Jan. 6.</p><p>All three have denied wrongdoing in the Capitol insurrection.</p>
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